Letter: It's time to recognize America's declining dominance

Our polarized, toxic domestic political environment precludes rational discussion about why our political and economic dominance in the world has declined in recent decades. Much as all the partisans would like to blame the other party, it started well before Presidents Obama and Bush.

I believe this decline simply reflects that much of the world has recovered from WWII and become less dependent on our resources or protection, and many less-developed nations have grown to competitive status. Face it, it's not a static world. Being dominant for so long has made us so arrogant that we still believe we can order other nations to do anything we demand. In reality, our military strength is essentially irrelevant, and our paralyzed political system has cost us the respect of many nations.

We are still the richest nation on this planet, but with a problem of growing disparity between rich and poor. Continuing economic equilibration with poorer nations like China exacerbates this problem. We might continue evolving into a banana republic, or we might be heading down a road to revolution. Neither possibility is palatable. It's time to recognize who and where we are in the global scheme, and to develop real solutions to our real problems.

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